| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that
in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor
propriety existed. The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded
from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which
concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance
of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had
difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have
been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But
the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death.
His vesture was dabbled in blood--and his broad brow, with all
the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: THOMAS TOPHAM (died, 1749);
JOYCE, 1703; VAN ECKENBERG, 1718;
BARSABAS AND HIS SISTER; THE ITALIAN
FEMALE SAMPSON, 1724; THE ``LITTLE
WOMAN FROM GENEVA,'' 1751; BELZONI,
1778-1823.
Bodily strength has won the admiration
--I might almost say, the worship--of
mankind from the days of Hercules and his
ten mythical labors, to the days of Sandow
with his scores of actual achievements. Each
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: rashness--like the players in the palaestra who are caught upon the line,
and are dragged different ways by the two parties. Therefore I think that
we had better begin by considering those whom we first accosted, 'the
river-gods,' and, if we find any truth in them, we will help them to pull
us over, and try to get away from the others. But if the partisans of 'the
whole' appear to speak more truly, we will fly off from the party which
would move the immovable, to them. And if I find that neither of them have
anything reasonable to say, we shall be in a ridiculous position, having so
great a conceit of our own poor opinion and rejecting that of ancient and
famous men. O Theodorus, do you think that there is any use in proceeding
when the danger is so great?
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